Introduction:
Kaprosuchus, also popularly known as ‘Boar Croc‘ as well as also meaning ‘Boar Crocodile‘, is a large, semi-aquatic and an agile terrestrial crocodile from Late Cretaceous. I am probably you have seen this crocodile somewhere because when people mention a cool land croc, it is usually a Kaprosuchus. With those sharp sets of protruding teeth, who wouldn’t think this is cool. Even though this croc is famous now, you would think this guy would have a lot of history but surprisingly, not a lot of history. Let’s dive deeper, well not a lot and get to know this croc a little better.
Discovery:
Kaprosuchus was discovered in the Echkar Formation of Niger which is part of the Late Cretaceous rocks. Kaprosuchus is known from only a single, nearly complete, skull and it was described by paleontologists Paul Sereno and Hans Larsson in 2009’s ZooKeys monograph along with other crocodyliformes like Anatosuchus and Laganosuchus. If you want me to write species profile of the mentioned species, let me know in the comments.
One more interesting fact that is kind of related with Kaprosuchus is that the paleontologist, Paul Sereno, has been featured in quite a lot of paleo-documentaries. He has been popularized for the documentaries like National Geographic’s SuperCroc and When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs. And not only that, he has found quite a lot of new Dinosaur species along with Crocodilians. This man is a true legend in the field of modern paleontology that he even found new materials of Spinosaurus, my favorite dinosaur!!
Biology:
Kaprosuchus, when first discovered, was thought to be a strictly terrestrial crocodilian like the ancestral Triassic land crocodiles because the way the eyes are set on the skull. The eyes of Kaprosuchus are set in front which allows them to have binocular vision. Binocular vision is important for predators to have as it provides them an accurate depth and distance in their sight. Most hunts end in failures which is why adaptations are made to eliminate or lower failures and the eyes being set in front unlike the living crocodilians today whose eyes are set at the sides.
The reason could have been because it was a very active predator to have such an adaptation but recent studies showed that it had adaptations for hunting in the water, making Kaprosuchus semi-aquatic like the other genera in the same family of Mahajangasuchidae, Mahajangasuchus. The jaws could also open very wide to grab larger prey or medium prey whole. With the help enlarged teeth it had, makes it definitely easier for it to hunt dinosaurs.
Kaprosuchus would have been a nightmare for small animals. Just think of 3m (10 feet) long crocodile, galloping its way to you with teeth like you have never seen before in a crocodile and a huge, opened mouth, it would be hard even for a human to outrun this animal. People have a tough time outrunning Komodo Dragons, this would be a whole new level.
Media:
Kaprosuchus has been shown in media quite favorably than most prehistoric crocodilians. Probably because of the nickname, Boar Croc. Though I do not really like nicknames but if it helps in getting recognition, its fine by me. I will always call it Kaprosuchus. And also, paleontologist only discovered the skull and not the rest of the body, I would not go so far to popularize something so incomplete.
Having found a skull is great but without the body, you cannot accurately know how it looked and yes, you can infer from generas in the same family but there should be at least more finds to confirm that inference. Either way, me saying something will not make people listen and which is why there are some wild depictions of Kaprosuchus in media, like this one from Primeval show.
To me, this depiction is the biggest offender. I mean look at it, it looks a like monster from another planet and this show was depicting that animals from all across time came through to the present and then they show this monstrosity. Not only is it huge but it has tusks growing from the sides even though we have a skull fossil that shows it didn’t have. Teeth are growing from the sides of the jaws, it is just a crazy design without any thought.
Now yes, it is only a show and not a documentary, its for entertainment, I get all that argument but when your show’s plot deals with time-traveling animals, at least try to make them scientifically accurate. This kind of depiction follows the rule of cool more than educating and making it entertaining. If we want to forcefully educate people about gender pronouns and stuff like that, we can forcefully educate people about realistic depictions of prehistoric animals and be not offensive at all.
There are other media appearances which does more justice like the Merchandise below and I cannot believe I am saying this but Jurassic World franchise, has a pretty good depiction. The action figure released this year plus the Jurassic World mobile games have a pretty solid design.
Even though they are also cool looking, they do not turn up the dial to the max and make it look absolutely something else and which is why I want you to know about this and bring it up when you see any prehistoric creatures depicted wrongly because that ingrains the wrongness into the minds of people and becomes much harder to change it.
Q&A:
Why did Kaprosuchus have long legs?
I am sure there is no evidence of Kaprosuchus having long legs. I am sure the reason why you are thinking it has long legs is because of most of the shown of Kaprosuchus shows it with long legs. If, you have gone through this post, you would know that paleontologists have only found the skull of this Crocodyliforme and not the rest of the body, which makes it harder to know the whole body shape as Crocodyliformes have been known to be quite diverse in body shape. So, why long legs? Because the earlier studies mentioned that it could be a terrestrial crocodile and that is how it has been described for a long time before more research came how it could be semi-aquatic as well and so now, most paleontologist imagine it as a halfway of normal croc body and terrestrial croc body just with a huge head with huge teeth!
How fast could a Kaprosuchus run?
Kaprosuchus probably did not run or run as fast as lions or cheetahs but it probably did gallop like modern day crocodiles do from time to time and it is pretty scary. If I were to guess how fast they could run, I think it would be around an average of 20 m/h or 32 km/h and I think that is still fast when humans average around 28 m/h or 45 km/h and that is if Kaprosuchus does not start out with a surprise stealth attack which Crocodyliformes are an expert at.
Could Kaprosuchus jump?
I mean if Kaprosuchus can gallop, it can jump but not the kind of jump you might be expecting. For this guy, paleontologists only have the skull and not the rest of the body and so we clearly do not know if it walked like a normal croc or was it running like a lion and if it did not have an upright stance like a lion, it probably was not able to jump like one either. Unless paleontologists find more fossils of Kaprosuchus, we can only make an educated guess.
Is Kaprosuchus a crocodile or alligator?
Well, Kaprosuchus is neither a crocodile or an alligator because the modern crocodiles and alligators we know of, evolved a lot later, more like after the extinction of dinosaurs. Kaprosuchus was not even close to the modern-day relatives and it was more of a distant ancestor. Kaprosuchus is in the larger umbrella of Crocodyliformes but not all species in Crocodyliformes are part of the living group, Crocodilia.
What was Kaprosuchus real size?
Kaprosuchus would have been around respectable 3 meters (10 feet) in length and while it may not be as huge as some media may show it to be but it would still be a dangerous to look out for near the watering holes as you may never know when a Kaprosuchus may jump out to grab you and drown you in the water.
Merchandise:
Funnily enough, even though we do not much about this crocodilian other than the skull fossil found, there are quite a few merchandise of Kaprosuchus. I did make a species profile post about Arizonasaurus a while back but I could not find a single merch item about Arizonasaurus but easily found some for Kaprosuchus. Well, it is a great luck to be a Kaprosuchus fan and here the links of the products I found!!
